Psalms 39:5

39:5 Look, you make my days short-lived, ¹ 

and my life span is nothing from your perspective. ² 

Surely all people, even those who seem secure, are nothing but vapor. ³ 

Psalms 39:11

39:11 You severely discipline people for their sins; ⁴ 

like a moth you slowly devour their strength. ⁵ 

Surely all people are a mere vapor. (Selah)

Psalms 49:14

49:14 They will travel to Sheol like sheep, ⁶ 

with death as their shepherd. ⁷ 

The godly will rule ⁸  over them when the day of vindication dawns; ⁹ 

Sheol will consume their bodies and they will no longer live in impressive houses. ¹⁰ 

Psalms 146:3-4

146:3 Do not trust in princes,

or in human beings, who cannot deliver! ¹¹ 

146:4 Their life’s breath departs, they return to the ground;

on that day their plans die. ¹² 

Isaiah 14:16

14:16 Those who see you stare at you,

they look at you carefully, thinking: ¹³ 

“Is this the man who shook the earth,

the one who made kingdoms tremble?

Luke 16:22-23

16:22 “Now ¹⁴  the poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. ¹⁵  The ¹⁶  rich man also died and was buried. ¹⁷  16:23 And in hell, ¹⁸  as he was in torment, ¹⁹  he looked up ²⁰  and saw Abraham far off with Lazarus at his side. ²¹ 

James 1:11

1:11 For the sun rises with its heat and dries up the meadow; the petal of the flower falls off and its beauty is lost forever. ²²  So also the rich person in the midst of his pursuits will wither away.

[39:5]  ¹ tn Heb “Look, handbreadths you make my days.” The “handbreadth” (equivalent to the width of four fingers) was one of the smallest measures used by ancient Israelites. See P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 (WBC), 309.

[39:5]  ² tn Heb “is like nothing before you.”

[39:5]  ³ tn Heb “surely, all vapor [is] all mankind, standing firm.” Another option is to translate, “Surely, all mankind, though seemingly secure, is nothing but a vapor.”

[39:11]  ⁴ tn “with punishments on account of sin you discipline a man.”

[39:11]  ⁵ tc Heb “you cause to dissolve, like a moth, his desired [thing].” The translation assumes an emendation of חֲמוּדוֹ (khamudo, “his desirable [thing]”) to חֶמְדוֹ (khemdo, “his loveliness” [or “beauty”]), a reading that is supported by a few medieval Hebrew mss.

[49:14]  ⁶ tn Heb “like sheep to Sheol they are appointed.” The verb form שַׁתּוּ (shatu) is apparently derived from שָׁתַת (shatat), which appears to be a variant of the more common שִׁית (shiyt, “to place; to set”; BDB 1060 s.v. שָׁתַת and GKC 183 §67.ee). Some scholars emend the text to שָׁחוּ (shakhu; from the verbal root שׁוּח [shukh, “sink down”]) and read “they descend.” The present translation assumes an emendation to שָׁטוּ (shatu; from the verbal root שׁוּט [shut, “go; wander”]), “they travel, wander.” (The letter tet [ט] and tav [ת] sound similar; a scribe transcribing from dictation could easily confuse them.) The perfect verbal form is used in a rhetorical manner to speak of their destiny as if it were already realized (the so-called perfect of certitude or prophetic perfect).

[49:14]  ⁷ tn Heb “death will shepherd them,” that is, death itself (personified here as a shepherd) will lead them like a flock of helpless, unsuspecting sheep to Sheol, the underworld, the land of the dead.

[49:14]  ⁸ tn The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive carries the same force as the perfect verbal form in v. 14a. The psalmist speaks of this coming event as if it were already accomplished.

[49:14]  ⁹ tn Heb “will rule over them in the morning.” “Morning” here is a metaphor for a time of deliverance and vindication after the dark “night” of trouble (see Pss 30:5; 46:5; 59:16; 90:14; 143:8; Isa 17:14). In this context the psalmist confidently anticipates a day of vindication when the Lord will deliver the oppressed from the rich (see v. 15) and send the oppressors to Sheol.

[49:14]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “their form [will become an object] for the consuming of Sheol, from a lofty residence, to him.” The meaning of this syntactically difficult text is uncertain. The translation assumes that צוּר (tsur, “form”; this is the Qere [marginal] reading; the Kethib has צִירָם [tsiram, “their image”]) refers to their physical form or bodies. “Sheol” is taken as the subject of “consume” (on the implied “become” before the infinitive “to consume” see GKC 349 §114.k). The preposition מִן (min) prefixed to “lofty residence” is understood as privative, “away from; so as not.” The preposition -ל (lamed) is possessive, while the third person pronominal suffix is understood as a representative singular.

[146:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “in a son of man, to whom there is no deliverance.”

[146:4]  ¹² tn Heb “his spirit goes out, it returns to his ground; in that day his plans die.” The singular refers to the representative man mentioned in v. 3b.

[14:16]  ¹³ tn The word “thinking” is supplied in the translation in order to make it clear that the next line records their thoughts as they gaze at him.

[16:22]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “Now it happened that the.” The introductory phrase ἐγένετο (egeneto, “it happened that”), common in Luke (69 times) and Acts (54 times), is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.

[16:22]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “to Abraham’s bosom.” The phrase “carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom” describes being gathered to the fathers and is a way to refer to heaven (Gen 15:15; 47:30; Deut 31:16).

[16:22]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “And the.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[16:22]  ¹⁷ sn The shorter description suggests a different fate, which is confirmed in the following verses.

[16:23]  ¹⁸ sn The Greek term Hades stands for the Hebrew concept of Sheol. It is what is called hell today. This is where the dead were gathered (Ps 16:10; 86:13). In the NT Hades has an additional negative force of awaiting judgment (Rev 20:13).

[16:23]  ¹⁹ sn Hades is a place of torment, especially as one knows that he is separated from God.

[16:23]  ²⁰ tn Grk “he lifted up his eyes” (an idiom).

[16:23]  ²¹ tn Grk “in his bosom,” the same phrase used in 16:22. This idiom refers to heaven and/or participation in the eschatological banquet. An appropriate modern equivalent is “at Abraham’s side.”

[1:11]  ²² tn Or “perishes,” “is destroyed.”